347/366 – Bridal Veil Falls

*Monday, January 7

Monday morning my brother and I got up and went for a quick (relatively speaking) climb up Bridal Veil Falls. It was a bit easier than the ice climb on Sunday, so a bit more fun for me. It was quite the different situation than the day before though. This time my brother was belaying from the top, and when I got up there we were able to hike up the frozen stream bed for a while. It was absolutely beautiful up there, and I find myself already missing the canyon. I also got to clean an anchor and rappel for the first time after we were done, which was exciting (though admittedly slightly nerve-wracking at first). Again, this day calls for multiple photographs, so I hope you enjoy!

I thought I would share another of me in action.

The view right at the top of the falls.

And last but not least, my favorite shot from the day after rappelling down.

345/366 – Climbing

*Sunday, January 6

Sunday was an awesome day, and so it calls for multiple pictures. My brother, his friend and I got up early and headed to one of the ice climbing spots in Spearfish Canyon. It was my first time ice climbing, but I am hooked (unfortunately I live nowhere near a place to ice climb). After we all had a chance to get on the ice we packed up and went rock climbing just up the canyon a bit. It definitely reignited my desire to climb again. My school just finished a climbing wall in the rec center, so I plan on checking it out as soon as it is open.

Not taken by me (obviously), but I thought I would share one of me ice climbing.

My brother leading the climb.

 

North Carolina

Just last post I said I was going to post more often, and already I have failed to post on a regular basis. But, I have a bit of work and news to share, so hopefully I will have quite a few posts in the next few days.

Two weeks ago, over Halloween weekend, I went camping with my boyfriend in North Carolina. We were in Pisgah National Forest, just short of an hour south of Asheville. We had planned on leaving early Friday, but of course ended up behind schedule and didn’t arrive at our campsite until dark. It was raining, windy, and cold; not ideal camping weather at all. We didn’t bring a tent with us since we had our hammocks to sleep in, and so we were both dreading what that night would be like. Even though it was getting late, we had to make dinner, so we quickly hung up a tarp between some trees and set the Jet Boil on the ground to get some water going to cook our dinner. While sitting in the car eating our dinner we decided it would be best to just sleep in the car that night, since it was so late and still raining. I slept only a couple of hours that night; it was one of the longest nights I have ever experienced. I remember laying there awake, thinking that it was never going to get light out, ha. When we woke up the car was all fogged up, but the light coming in was amazing. My lens was also fogging up so it made pictures difficult.

I didn’t shoot hardly any digital on our trip, and most of what I did shoot was double exposures for my current series. So unfortunately I don’t have a ton to share as of yet, but there will be more to come once I get the film developed. For now, here are some digital double exposures.

That night we drove to one of the many waterfalls in the area to get some long exposures. It was so dark in the forest that it was a little bit difficult to get a good image without having an exceptionally long exposure. This was around a 5 minute exposure, with light painting (with a flashlight) for over a minute.

We ended up sleeping in the hammock that night, and managed to stay surprisingly warm. I had on a crazy number of layers, and ended up getting hot in the night and needing to take a few off. Though they are not interesting images in and of themselves, here was our camp and our hammock situation.

RMNP Day Four

Our fourth day at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) was the most memorable one for me. I already told the full story of the day in my 365 post, so I won’t go into much detail here, but if interested be sure to click the link and check it out for even more pictures as well.

My family and I had decided to climb up Longs Peak on the fourth day since it looked like the weather would be the best then. I was nervous, but was intent on making it to the peak. However, altitude sickness got the best of me and I had to turn around right as the sun was beginning to come up. Luckily I was able to make it a ways up before sunrise so I was still able to get some sunrise picture. Although, I didn’t want to add any extra weight with my tripod so I had to hand hold everything (or rested my camera on a rock).

I don’t usually share personal pictures, but I thought I would share this one that I took of me and my mom on the hike back down just for fun.

While we were hiking up it was completely dark, and so although I could hear a bunch of waterfalls and streams I couldn’t see any. Turning around early ended up working out well for photographs though, because the light on all of the little streams was just perfect.

Once we got back to the parking lot we took some naps and read and just relaxed while waiting for the rest of our group to finish their hike. After a bit we decided to go on a short little hike to an old mining sight. There wasn’t much left there, but I did get some more pictures of streams and waterfalls of course.

When we got back we didn’t have long to wait before half of our group (one of my brothers and my sister) got back to the parking lot, so we chatted with them until my dad arrived to bring some of us back to the campsite. The storms were starting to roll in at that point, which created the usual amazing clouds. I couldn’t resist taking pictures so I stuck my camera out the window once again.

At the campsite I sat in my hammock reading and sleeping until my other brother and his wife came back with my mom. Since they made it to the peak they didn’t finish until 3:00pm or so. Once everyone was back we went in to town to shower for the first time all week, and eat a quick dinner since we were all too tired to make anything. On the drive back into the campsite there was a rainbow right over the valley, so I hopped out of the car to get some pictures, and was surprised by a second rainbow showing up. All I could think of was the double rainbow video, which if you haven’t seen it be sure to go check it out if you want to get a good laugh for the day.

I had been wanting to capture the mountains in the valley at sunset all week, and this was as close as I was going to get, which luckily ended up being pretty good timing.

And now I have finally shared all of the pictures from our stay at Rocky Mountain National Park; it only took me a couple of months. I hope you all enjoyed them!

Rocky Mountain National Park Day 1

I finally finished up the editing of all the pictures from my camping trip to Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) that I went on at the beginning of August, so now it is time to share. I decided the best way to do so would be to have a separate post for each day, so get ready for five long posts with lots of pictures. Hopefully you all enjoy them!

Our first full day in RMNP was close to perfect. Since it was our first day in the high elevation we went on a nice starter hike to get acclimated. An easy starter hike for my family isn’t exactly the typical easy hike though. Unfortunately I can’t remember the name of the trail that we took, I just know that we went past Cub Lake and hiked past Big Thompson Falls, which I thought was appropriate.

We turned back a little earlier than planned because the afternoon storm was moving in quick, and it looked like a bad one. But I have to say I enjoyed these afternoon storms, because they created some awesome cloud conditions.

That evening while we were hanging out at our campsite we got a little bit of rain, but it was completely sunny throughout the entire thing. It was absolutely beautiful, but unfortunately my photographs didn’t come close to showing just how stunning it really was.

 

 

274/365 – Cumberland Falls

**Still catching up…after falling back behind before even being caught up. How sad.

Sunday, October 10

Last fall I had seen pictures of a fellow photographer (who is friends with my brother and who I have played soccer with for two indoor seasons) at Dog Slaughter Falls. I immediately fell in love with the place and since then have been trying to get there. Dog Slaughter Falls is in Cumberland Falls State Park. Cumberland Falls is another waterfall there, ad is one of two waterfalls in the world where a moonbow is visible. Elliot has always wanted to see that (which is obviously only visible at night, and only during full moons for that matter), so we decided we needed to swing by that one also. Well this past weekend Elliot and I finally had a Sunday free, and so I told him early on in the week that we were going to go no matter what and that he was not to make plans. Sunday morning we headed out, and opted for the back roads instead of taking the highway. It took is a little over two hours, and was such a nice drive. We stopped and got some lunch and water before actually going into the park, and then began our long day of hiking.

This is Cumberland falls (the one that has the moonbow). It is right next to the visitor center, and so up at the top of it there were a ton of people. Once we hiked down a bit there were less and less people, which was nice. This particular spot we had to climb over some huge boulders and jammed logs, and were completely alone there.

I will upload the “rest” of the pictures in another post with some more of the story perhaps. It was extremely difficult to choose just one main picture from this day, I am so happy with so many, which is the first time in a long time that I have actually liked my landscape photographs.

Become a fan on Facebook at Abigail Thompson Photography. And be sure to check out the Etsy shop I opened with my sister.